Well, it had to happen. Ever since Microsoft cut Windows 9x/ME users adrift, people have been holding their breath. We’ve been waiting for that moment when the first serious security threat developed. That is now a reality. Is there hope?
It’s all in the hands of third-party security firms, now. This is no garden-variety hole, it’s a ‘sink the Titanic’-sized hole. Microsoft says fixing it would mean rewriting a significant part of the OS’ kernel, thereby practically guaranteeing a whole LOT of collateral damage (like not being able to run Windows software). So, it’s just not going to fix it. Period. Official support ends next month, so it’ll let this slide, with the comment that the older DOS-based operating systems have never been secure and that this major flaw simply serves to underline that fact.
Whether security software firms can plug a hole this big is up in the air. I can’t find any comments floating around out there, so we’ll have to leave it to users to try to dig some comment out of the publishers. At the very least, this should provide some further reason for current users to close the books on 98/ME and move on.
[tags]windows,microsoft,security,support,windows me,windows 98,critical[/tags]